This is a Titus 2 and 1 Timothy 5:14 Web-Log Teaching Good Things About the Home

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Hopelessly Devoted to the Garden

These, and many more FANTASTIC Igor Levashove paintings are now at Lovely Whatevers

The artist, Igor Levashov, is fast becoming one of my favorite contempory artists. How does he do that? I can almost smell his roses!

Here are some garden quotes:

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful implanted in the human soul.” - Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Your mind is a garden,your thoughts are the seeds,the harvest can be either flowers or weeds.- Author Unknown

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.- Emma Goldman

I must dress my best today. My roses will want to see me. (unknown)

The last quote made me think: yes, the flowers and even the vegetable gardens, are so beautiful that I get the feeling I ought to dress up in a special way in order to inspect them. I am afraid I've been very obsessed with the garden this month and quite unable to think about anything else. I did receive a nice hint about bringing flowers into the house bug-free. Take a bucket of water, and cut the flowers into the water. The bugs will rise to the top and then you can take out the flowers and put them in vases for the house.

Other gardens: In the Bible: The Garden of Eden, and the Garden of Gethsemane, where the first time the word "agony" appears in scripture. In history, who can forget the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. Persia was famous for its gardens up until recent times! Gardens in country areas could extend the living spaces of small cottages. Don't feel bad if you haven't got a garden. If you just grow one lily in your house or plant one tomato plant, you can experience the wonder of gardening.

This is the pattern for the dress you see on the left of the blog above the contact link. It is two piece. It is sewn in white flocked muslin, with a type of trim that looks like ribbon woven through lace. My experience with this pattern was very positive. It looks more complicated than it is. The only change I would make would be to have a button down front of the blouse instead of a zip in the back. Regarding comfort: I put this dress on just for a staged photo as you see, however, it was so comfortable, I forgot I was wearing it and wore it all day. So contrary to popular myth, the Victorian clothing was not straight-laced and uncomfortable. It DID improve my posture. It just made me want to stand straighter, and I needed that. It felt so dignified.

Close view of flocked muslin and ribbon-threaded lace.

People always seem to want to know why the girls at Sensibililty.com and others are so interested in costume sewing or in making their own dresses. Indeed, many people seem to be preferring costume clothing these days, and it is no wonder, when you see what is available for fashion these days. When I have more time, I'll include a list of catologs that have some colorful skirts.

21 comments:

Thank you for these lovely quotes and pictures. Some of my earliest memories are of roses. On Sunday I was delighted to be able to gather a bouquet of ruby red roses from my own garden-the first ever-to present to my parents-in-law for their ruby anniversary. What a pleasure to finally have a well flowering rose bush. Gill.

Thank you for sharing these beautiful paintings and the inspiring quotes! What a gift that artist has for painting roses. It is just as you said, you can almost smell them!

I love the beautiful photo of you sitting at your desk. You have your desk decorated so pretty and your outfit is beautiful, so feminine and old- fashioned. I love your hair pinned up and the way you are holding your fan. You are such a lovely lady and a blessing and encouragement to me. Photos like that are so inspiring! I wear dresses or skirts and blouses everyday! I love to see ladies dressed modestly and feminine. It reminds me of a time when all women dressed like that! It just makes you feel better to dress pretty, and my husband and son love that I dress that way.

I hope you have a lovely week!The Lord bless you, dear Lady Lydia!!!Paula

The entire picture was staged. The photo had to be altered, also, to eliminate some background clutter. The house reverted back into the mess as soon as the photographing was over. My little grandson, age 9, took the picture.

Dear Lady Lydia,Thank you for this lovely post. Those roses are beautiful! It made me realzie that I am definitely missing art on my walls and need to buy some posters and frame them. I love the quotes as well. I especially LOVE the photo of you on your sidebar. It is exceptionally pretty. I love your dress and I love your desk and I love the white curtains. I would love to see a larger picture or more pictures of your desk and your home. I just think its so beautiful.God bless,Candy

Hello. Thank you for this lovely post. It reaffirms a feeling I've been developing lately while working in my garden -- I could be wearing something more ladylike. I always wear a big hat, long pants, and one of my husband's long-sleeved old shirts to keep the sun off of me. (I hate smearing greasy old sunblock lotions on each day.) Needless to say, I look more like a scarecrow than a lovely lady when I am in the garden.

I love that quote about dressing for the roses. But, I realize how much I want to dress better for me and my family. I spend many hours each week working in my garden, and that means many hours not really looking my best. This post gives me more inspiration for change.

I do so enjoy your recommendations for feminine clothes! Have you ever done a week in feminine dress? I am very sure that many would enjoy seeing you throughout the week!

You mentioned in a post a while ago about a dress that you made and enjoy very much. It is fairly loose so it is cool in the summer. I think you also said that you gave the pattern to Rebecca Newton to copy sometime. Do you know if she will be publishing it anytime soon? I would love to have a copy of it!

I recently sent away for the skirt pattern on this web page but I haven't received it yet. She will also sew custom skirts, but since I couldn't afford that I just bought the pattern. These look very comfortable. I hope this will help someone else.joanna

I was very fortunate to have "inherited" my garden. The house that we bought a few years ago was owned by an elderly lady that loved to garden. I now have roses, hollyhocks, peonies, irises, daffodils, violets, a rose of sharon bush, and tulips. Since they bloom at different times throughout the season, there is beautiful color to enjoy everyday from spring right through to the fall. My husband and I have been planting tomatoes and basil for the last 3 years and enjoy food from our own yard. I agree that no one should feel bad about not having a garden. Inside plants are just as nice. My grandmother passed away a few years ago but I have her shamrock plant to remember her by. I love to be surrounded with living things.

Although I have gardened on a small scale when I lived in my mother's home, this is the first year that I have had a LARGE garden. The work is hard, but oh so rewarding. The long days in Alaska allow vegetables to grow to quite large sizes. I just like walking through and seeing how much they have grown each day.

Roses do not do so well here and are something I miss. We are going to eventually try some roses advertised for zones 2 and 3, but have to prepare a good sheltered spot first. (We have decided that we much be zone 2/5.)

I'm sorry to be somewhat off-topic but I wanted to say thank you for praying for me and that your (and my) prayers have been answered. As I previously posted, my husband was reticent to allow me to be a stay at home wife for a number of reasons. I prayed about it and wrote out a Proposal to him to cut back my work hours to 15 a week, hoping he would see this as a compromise and give me more time at home.

God is very good and my husband told me yesterday (after holding onto my proposal for a *week*!) that he thought that as soon as we had one of our debts paid down (which we anticipate doing by September) that I could work the 15 hrs a week or quit all together if I really wanted to. He was very supportive about it. I think my proposal written out,showing all the advantages of me being home, and including the scriptures that support my desire to be at home, really won his heart and mind. I was so overjoyed I danced around the house.

I just wanted to say thank you again for supplying encouragement and support for women who want to be home makers and for your prayers for those of us who struggle to get home. God is so good and may He bless you richly.

I love the pattern. Is it still available? I like this pattern because it shows the practical Victorian fashions. I don't think I could stand crinoline and bustle dresses but I love the Gibson girl look. Shirtwaists and walking skirts were cool. Have you ever worn a corset before? Nice flowers.

On top of improving posture, stays/corsets also give back support and prevent over-eating. However, if worn on a regular basis, they can cause muscle weakness in the abs and back since the stays do most of the work...at least that's what I've heard.

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" So far as this world knows or can vision, there is no attainment more desirable than the happy and contented home."

This is a Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 teaching blog, where you will find some ideas for creating the kind of home life that gives you a sense of well-being, creativity and accomplishment. It will help you understand the reasons for being the Biblical keepers of the home, as opposed to the world's answer of being career women outside of the home.

I really hope to help restore the culture of the home, which is a never-changing precept of the Bible: marriage, home and family. Young women especially need to know there is something else of greater importance than college and career, and that they play a vital role in making a stable family. In order to have strong marriages, respectful children, and good churches, women need to return to the home. My blog is based on the precept of First Timothy 5, verse 14:

"I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully..."

These articles are designed to give the homemaker ideas for doing an excellent job in the home and for enjoying the role of homemaker and guide of the house. Marriage, the family and home life is splintered. Women must be allowed to return to the home.

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The Queen's Ire

England's Queen Victoria wrote in 1870, "I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights', with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were woman to 'unsex' themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings, and would surely perish without male protection."-- Queen Victoria, 1870.

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Don't above all things, forget you are a woman; she is far more attractive when seen in the flowing draperies that centuries of use have made their own, than when masquerading as a man."--author unknown, written approximately 1850.

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"Why do women want to dress like men when they’re fortunate enough to be women? Why lose femininity, which is one of our greatest charms? We get more accomplished by being charming than we would be flaunting around in pants and smoking. I’m very fond of men. I think they are wonderful creatures. I love them dearly. But I don’t want to look like one. When women gave up their long skirts, they made a grave error…" ~Tasha Tudor

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. ~Jane Austen

Home ought to be our clearinghouse, the place from which we go forth lessoned and disciplined, and ready for life. ~Kathleen Norris